Howlin calls for 'root-and-branch' change to ethics legislation

The Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform says the findings of the Mahon Tribunal show a need for a root-and-branch reworking of ethics legislation.

Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform Brendan Howlin said today that the findings of the Mahon Tribunal show a need for a major reworking of ethics legislation.

Minister Howlin, speaking at the Labour Party Conference in Galway, said that the Coalition will have to act to clean up politics.

"I'm satisfied as I tell the conference this, that we will require a route-and-branch reworking of the existing ethics legislation," he said.

Labour have said that their party had opposed corruption tooth-and-nail and were not at the centre of what Minister Jan O'Sullivan described as the "orgy of planning corruption" exposed by the Tribunals.

Junior Health Minister Roisín Shortall has warned of significant cuts if reforms are not delivered.

Debating health this morning, Shortall told delegates that Ireland has lived through a private medicine boom similar to the property boom - and the public hospitals have suffered.

She declared that it cannot be business as usual at a time when there are significant cuts in spending, even in health.

"Unless there is fundamental reform, there will be substantial cuts in services and the poor will be the hardest hit," she said.

Earlier, during the education debate, motions were adopted calling on Minister Ruairí Quinn to remove the €90m in subsidies paid to private fee-paying schools.

This afternoon security at the venue is tight as a number of protests are planned.